Capitalism in the Dragon’s Lair by Christopher McNally, fellow, East-West Center. Of all the competing forecasts for the 21st Century, most agree that the economic and political emergence of China will be a central event. In terms of speed and scale, the developments unfolding in China are without parallel in the past. Intriguingly, few analysts have explicitly queried whether the massive socio-economic changes taking place within China are being driven by the same historical dynamic that catapulted Great Britain, the United States, Germany and Japan to international prominence—the emergence of capitalism.

This talk will address three related questions: Is China undergoing a capitalist transition? If so, what characterizes the political economy of China’s emerging capitalism? And what are the implications of this capitalism for world geopolitics and geoeconomics?

Christopher McNally joined the East-West Center in the year 2000. As a political economist focusing on the dynamics of capitalist institutions, his primary research interests include the nature and logic of China’s capitalist transition in comparative perspective; China's economic, financial and enterprise reforms with an emphasis on the rapid development of Chinese private firms; and the implications of China’s growing economic power on East Asian geopolitics and geoeconomics.